What I am Doing on my Croatian Vacation

All,

Well, it seems like it has been forever and there is a lot to cover, so I will get to typing. Off the top, rest assured, I am doing just fine, soaking up the rays and the warm sea breezes along the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia.

I left Switzerland early on Friday morning, and pretty much spent the whole day in transit as I caught trains from Interlaken to Spiez, Spiez to Milan, Milan to Bologna, and then Bologna to Ancona, where I caught the overnight ferry to Split. So, the day was pretty much a wash tourist wise. The only real highlights were grabbing some pizza in Ancona, Italy which was pretty good, and seemed to be authentic and the fact that the much fretted over ferry turned out to be more of a cruise ship than anything, so it was a pretty darn enjoyable journey across the Adriatic.

So, I woke up Saturday in Split harbor, jumped off the ferry and began the process of getting to know the city. The city is really cool, I have never been to the south of France, but it seems to me what that may look like, a nice wide pedestrain promenade on the harbor, and lots of faded, white buildings. The main town center actually used to be the Roman emperor Diocletian´s palace, and the old buildings, and aqueducts are still hanging around. So, I headed to the beach on Saturday, but it was actually kind of cloudy and cold, in between clouds I discovered a really cool little beach bar, and enjoyed a coffee.

Saturday night, I went out for a little bit with a couple British guys I met, and we went to a bar on a different beach in town. The scene there was pretty bizzare, there was a huge promotion going on with an energy drink company and it somehow involved the Croatian and Slovenian bobsled teams, as they were on hand to walk around and shake hands of all those in attendance. In addition, there was a band dressed in tuxedos, playing funk music and touting the benefits of Burn energy drink in between songs. All this, while techno music was blaring in the background and the bobsled guys were walking around as if they were rock stars. It was quite the scene.

Sunday I woke up and headed back to the beach, and was pleasantly suprised by the nearly perfect weather, and the beautiful beach. The beach is actually a pebble beach, and after an original pan of the beach, I now have started to enjoy not having to worry about getting sand everywhere. In addition the water is clear as can be, and you can see the bottom of the sea when you are swimming.

Unfortunately, on the way back from the beach, I went to turn on my camera, and my finger was blocking the lens as it opened, and as it hit my fingers, it retracted itself, and now will not work. So, the pics that are being posted on this blog, will probably be the last pics posted until I get home. I got up at 8 this morning to greet all the camera shop owners as they opened, and was told that It would cost more to repair it than it would to buy a new one, so I will wait til I get home, and either buy a new one or get this one fixed. After that, I went back to sleep, and then after a couple hours of shut eye, returned to one of the camera shops with my tail between my legs to buy two disposable cameras.

Sunday night, I went to a sports betting place to see if they were going to be broadcasting any NFL games, and they were not, so I just sat on the harbor and had some wonderful pizza by the slice. A great thing about Croatia is that for once, my dollar is actually worth something. A nice slice of pie is about 8 kuna, which translates to around $1.50.

Today, after the camera debacle, I headed back to the beach, and then enjoyed a couple iced coffees at the beach bar, and just sat there from like 5 to 7, just watching the sun set over the mountains. Would have been great for a picture, if had a camera.

Anyway, tomorrow I am catching a ferry to the island of Hvar, which allegedly has the best beaches in Croatia. I am spending the night there, and then heading back on Wednesday to catch the overnight ferry back to Italy, where I will be spending Thursday and Friday night in Florence. So, hope everyone is doing great, and I will update from Florence with the remainder of my Croatian adventures and some new Florentine ones. til then ...

Scott

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